Marissa Mayer, the geek as babe

By Pepper Schwartz, Special to CNN

Updated 10:09 AM ET, Wed August 21, 2013

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's photo spread in Vogue magazine has proven controversial, with some saying it detracts from the 3,000-word article that focuses on her successes and vision in a male-dominated tech world. The profile describes Mayer as an "unusually stylish geek." Take a look at other photos of her through the years.

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – Mayer was always an exceptional student, excelling in biology and chemistry. "When I was first at Stanford, I was very certain I was going to be a pediatric neurosurgeon," she says. However, a summer at youth science camp resulted in a change in thinking, and the path that would eventually lead to Google and later Yahoo.

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – In December 2009, Mayer married Zachary Bogue, a private-equity executive a year her junior.

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – While Mayer describes herself as an introvert, she says her husband, who she met after they were set up, is the flip side of the coin. "He finds social situations very energizing and for me, I find them very intimidating and draining."

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – Mayer accepted the National Design Award on behalf of Google in October 2008. But public speaking and social events haven't always been easy, says Mayer: "I'm a really shy person. ... Yet at Google, my colleagues would never believe that; because here, I'm outspoken because I feel comfortable and I feel like I can express my opinions and find my voice."

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – Early days at Google, Halloween 2004. After agonizing over 14 job offers, she chose to join Google in 1999 because, she says, "I felt like the smartest people were there, I felt like it was a risk and I felt like it was something I wasn't really prepared to do."

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – Mayer says every new product raises users' expectations. Here, Mayer is at Grand Central Station in New York for the launch of the Transit feature on Google Maps in 2008.

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – When she can, Mayer enjoys outdoor and sporting activities. She says, "I did a cross-country ski race once, it was 56 kilometers long, which is like 32 miles and I did it without training. ... I actually was slower on the cross-country skis than I would have been if I walked."

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – Mayer says gender doesn't matter if you have a passion for what you do. "I'm surrounded by all kinds of other people who are just as passionate and that passion is gender neutralizing."

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Marissa Mayer: Proud geek10 photos

Marissa Mayer: Proud geek – Pictured in 2013, Mayer has often been named one of the most powerful women in business. "I didn't set out to be at the top of technology companies," she told Vogue magazine. "I'm just geeky and shy and I like to code. ... It's not like I had a grand plan where I weighed all the pros and cons of what I wanted to do—it just sort of happened."

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Story highlights

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer posed for stylish Vogue fashion shoot

Pepper Schwartz: some women wished Mayer didn't need affirmation of such a spread

She asks if Mayer couldn't have gotten credit for her brains rather than her looks

Schwartz: The unintended message is you have to be smart and beautiful

The picture of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer tilted on a lounge chair, hair flowing above her and shot from above has sparked a mini-firestorm among women. A significant number of women, feeling not too distanced from the days when women CEOs were just a fond hope, much less an aspiration, were less than thrilled at the idea of one of the few women of real power still needing the affirmation of a Vogue fashion shoot.

The fact that it was kind of sexy added just a little gasoline to the fire. But to be fair, the reaction was far from uniform; other women slammed back and said, " Why not?" "She's earned the right to do anything she wants, and why not be sexy and a CEO? We don't have to wear the same uniform men do, we can do it our way".

Well, I am teetering towards the middle but coming down on the side of the disappointed. On the one hand, Marissa Mayer can't avoid the fact that she's a role model, even if she didn't start out to be one. Her picture seems to say to us, "Here's a real me that's just as important as being a CEO. Look at how pretty and sexy I am!" Now any woman can understand that.

Posing for the camera is always a narcissistic act, and I dare say, most women's first reaction to seeing themselves in a photo that surfaces in a newspaper, or in a private family shot, is "how do I look?" I plead guilty. But still, here's a woman who has made it to the top because of her brains, does she still need to self-validate by having a beautiful fashion gig?

What does that say to all the women who would never be beautiful enough to do that, but might be brainy enough to have her job? Should they feel " less than Marissa" because they can't qualify for the Vogue slot? Couldn't Marissa just take pictures that show her as a stylish and good-looking CEO rather than as a babe who is showing her great legs in $1,000 shoes?

But then there is the other side. We all do love to look great and be admired. We understand the impulse. And why should she be denied her one month of being a famous fashonista? She's worked hard to gain the prominence she earned, and some girls, even very smart girls, do, just like the song says, "just want to have fun"... at least occasionally.

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I get it, and I get why she did it. But she has to take note of how pained a lot of women are about this fashion photo. Not just a few women felt hurt looking at the Mayer layout, wondering silently or out loud if acquiescing to this kind of shot means that for Mayer, and perhaps for other women, that "making it" and "having it all" needs to include being publicly admired for one's allure. That's a depressing thought for many talented women who are not beautiful or not sexy. They do not have that card to play and this layout could certainly make them wonder if selection for the top job requires being lovely.

We women would like to feel that for at least some of us, sheer competence would make looks a non-issue in our lives. We would like to think that a brainiac like Marissa Mayer wouldn't need, perhaps would not want, to have a very public glamor shot as a career capstone. Unfortunately, it is not an exaggeration to say that Marissa Mayer is kind of saying, even though I am sure she did not mean to, that to have it all, sure, you have to be smart, but, let's face it, you also need to be beautiful.